Entries tagged with: Wino

When we last heard from Scott "Wino" Weinrich, he was being deported from Norway for possession of methamphetamine during a St. Vitus tour and subsequently pledging to get clean and continue with his work. It would seem now that he's making good on at least part of that promise, with the welcome news that he'll be performing solo and headlining the Feast of Krampus shows that will take place in NYC and Philadelphia. Conceived as a darker, more-pagan-oriented holiday celebration, the shows are named after Krampus, the demonic Alpine beast from traditional European folklore. Sounds like the perfect way for Wino to get back on the performing horse.

The Philadelphia show will take place on December 27 at Underground Arts and will feature Sixty Watt Shaman, Wizard Eye, Skeleton Hands and Chimpgrinder, and tickets are on sale now. The NYC show will be on December 28 at Saint Vitus and will also feature Sixty Watt Shaman, as well as Godmaker, Birch Hill Dam, Moon Tooth and Buzzard Canyon. Tickets for that sure-to-be-occult show are also currently on sale.

Check out a video of Saint Vitus playing Saint Vitus in 2013 (via Pit Full of Shit) below...

As we've discussed, iconic Saint Vitus frontman Scott "Wino" Weinrich was recently deported from Norway for possession of illegal substances during the band's ongoing European tour. The band has continued the tour in Wino's absence, and word subsequently came out that the illegal substance in question was methamphetamine. In the wake of this troubling news, Wino has released an official statement (via Decibel) that discusses the circumstances surrounding the arrest and the fact that he is seeking treatment for addiction. The entire statement is posted below...

Legendary doom band Saint Vitus (not the Brooklyn venue of the same name) have been on a European tour and today they posted a statement to Facebook saying that their singer Scott "Wino" Weinrich was detained in Norway for possession of illegal substances. Here's what they wrote:

Saint Vitus would like to regretfully inform all of our European fans that our lead vocalist Wino was detained by the Norwegian police and immigrations officers for possession of illegal substances since Sunday November 9th. As of 4 pm yesterday evening (Nov. 11th) we were informed by his Norwegian defense attorney that he would more than likely be released that same day and be able to continue the remaining dates of our European tour. This morning we received notification that Wino was being deported today back to the U.S. with no hope to remain in Scandanavia or anywhere in the EU.

SAINT VITUS WILL CONTINUE THE REMAINING DATES OF THE TOUR!!!

Our sincere apologies to all of our fans, the promoters, booking agents and especially our Norwegian fans and promoter for the cancelled show. We will still deliver the HEAVY sound to all of our friends in Europe and it is our hope that everyone will understand our position to go forward with the remaining dates without Wino. David Chandler and Henry Vasquez along with a few surprise guests will take over vocal duties and this will be a rare opportunity to see Vitus with main songwriter David Chandler vocalizing his tormented tales of pain, heartache and DOOM. We hope to still see all of you on our remaining dates. FUCK THAT WEAK SHIT!!!!

Nice to see they're not letting a little deportation of their lead singer slow them down!

Watch a video of the band Saint Vitus playing the song "Saint Vitus" from their album Saint Vitus at Brooklyn venue Saint Vitus (and other songs) below...

Tonight's Big Terrific comedy show at Cameo will be the last to feature host Gabe Leidman who is moving to Los Angeles. Guests include Michael Showwalter, Jessi Klein, Eli Yudin and "a secret guest or two." As always, it's free. 8:30 PM.

Following their dates together with Clutch, Mondo Generator will team with Saviours and Wino for a show at Saint Vitus on January 2. Tickets are on sale. All tour dates are below. As you may have read, Nick of Mondo Generator is back with his old bandmates on the new Queens of the Stone Age record.

An avalanche of new tracks today, including the new title track from the forthcoming "Harmonslaught" 7" by Torche, a new Ghost track (HERE), a new Suffocation track from their forthcoming LP, and last but not least a new Portal track. The latter will appear on the band's forthcmong new LP (!) Vexovoid, due via Profound Lore on Feb 19, 2013. Check out all of those new tracks below.

All streams and a listing of all Evillive-approved shows for the next two weeks (and last two of 2012) year are below.

In June, Saint Vitus also shared a bill with Down, and Sleep, at Scion Rock Fest 2012 in Tampa, Florida. Their set was one of the highlights of the fest. Check out video from that, of the doom metal greats ripping through "Blessed Night" along with an interview with frontman Wino, below.

Clutch will team with Mondo Generator, Saviours and Wino for a string of East Coast dates leading up to a New Year's Eve show outside of Boston. Those dates include a stop at Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ on 12/30. Tickets go on AMEX presale today (9/19) at 10AM and regular sale on Friday and are currently on fan presale.

Wino, who played Saint Vitus in August, will return to the Greenpoint venue to play a sold-out show with the bandSaint Vitus on Tuesday (9/25) as part of their string of US dates. The band also recently released a new Live EP via Scion. Download it for free here and stream it below along with a couple videos and a list of all tour dates.

As discussed previously, three titans of metal have combined forces for the unlikely cause of a tribute album. Wino (Saint Vitus, The Obsessed, many more), Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till (both of Neurosis) all tackle Songs of Townes Van Zandt, a collection of covers available via Neurot Recordings now. Stream Scott Kelly's rendition of "St. John, the Gambler" as well as Steve Von Till's "Black Crow Blues" below, the latter of which is making its first public appearance here.

In related news, Wino & Conny Ochs released their Heavy Kingdom LP earlier this year (stream it) and the pair will hit the road in the US for a string of dates. Look for the pair to hit Saint Vitus on August 22nd, tickets are on sale.

A listing of all Wino/Conny Ochs dates are below, along with streams and the Songs of Townes Van Zandt tracklisting.

After having performed material by Townes Van Zandt solo and through various collaborations on stage over recent years, on solo releases and on random live collaborations, the aptly entitled Songs of Townes Van Zandt brings several songs each from Scott Kelly, Steve Von Till and Scott "Wino" Weinrich together in praise of his deep musical influence on them all. Through a personal contact of the artists, newly-formed label My Proud Mountain was founded specially in order to release this tribute, with Neurot Recordings handling the North American release of the album on June 12th.

These three titans of metal will combine for three songs each on the release, so fans of Scott Kelly, Wino, Steve Von Till, and Townes Van Zandt should keep an eye out for the record. Stream Scott Kelly's cover of "St. John, The Gambler" below.

In related news, Neurosis, which contains Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till, have completed mixing their new album (!) in Chicago. Still no word on album title or release, but its expected to (finally) be released by the end of the year. Stoked. The band also recently reissued the Sovereign EP.

In other Wino news, the Saint Vitus frontman will team with Conny Ochs to play all of his recently released Heavy Kingdom LP at Roadburn this week. Saint Vitus are preparing to release their new LP Lillie: F- 65 via Season of Mist, and have released a new video for "Let Them Fall" Check that out alongside the stream for "St. John, The Gambler" and some Scott Kelly tour dates, below...

The hits keep on coming! Legendary doom greats The Obsessed will reunite to play Roadburn 2012 this year! The band, which features doom legend Wino on guitar/vocals, will be in The Church Within formation, featuring Greg Rogers (Goatsnake) on drums and Guy Pinhas (Acid King, Goatsnake) on bass. The Obsessed will join d.USK (aka diSEMBOWELMENT), Voivod, Saviours, Agalloch, Sleep, Om, Sólstafir, and 40 Watt Sun (who play Public Assembly tomorrowwith Woe and new addition Pilgrim).

Wino's latest concoction, Premonition 13, will hit the road for a string of dates on the West Coast with the mighty Witch Mountain before heading to the EU. Tour dates are below. P13's new LP 13 is out now, and features "La Hechicera de la Jeringa", available in video from below.

Wino's other other band, Saint Vitus, is scheduled to play Maryland Deathfest X at Sonar in Baltimore. Though lineups by day (except for Thursday) have yet to be revealed, tickets for MDF go on sale Monday, September 26th

Moab is part of an elite society that knows that knows the difference between "classic" and "retro" and they abandon all notions of "old and tired" on their Kemado debut Ab Ovo which is out Tuesday (8/16). We premiered "So On" off of the power trio's new record last week, and now you can stream all 40 minutes of Ab Ovo below.

Moab celebrated the release of the record on July 29th in their native Los Angeles. The band, supported by The Fucking Wrath and Author & Punisher, was joined on stage by none other than doom legend Wino who helped them cover Pentragram (who head back out on tour soon!). Pictures from the LA show are, with the full album stream, below...

"It's time to Sab out on y'all," said the Yeti-sized longhair covered in more ink than the Sunday New York Times.

The dude is question was John Fitterer, frontman for L.A. metallers Crowned in Fire, and the "Sab" he was referring to was Black Sabbath.

It was a telling statement early on at the Doom in June fest Saturday at the Cheyenne Saloon, where the aforementioned Brit metal pioneers loomed almost as large over the event as the monster riffs that defined the day...

All the way from Finland, Hooded Menace brought some crippling death doom in the form of a monstrously heavy, elephantine crawl that rumbled like tectonic plates colliding.

Maryland's Iron Man followed, overcoming some drummer troubles (they had to play with a replacement) to wow with their upper-register, trad metal classicism.

Scott "Wino" Weinrich made the acoustic guitar sound electric during his unplugged set, which he ended by walking into the crowd.

And then there were headliners Solitude Aeturnus, who quickly demonstrated why they were perched atop the lineup... The band played the fan favorite "Opaque Divinity" early on in their set, and fittingly so: For doom lifers, it was a moment that at least approached the divine. -[Las Vegas Review-Journal]

The second installment of doom and stoner rock fest Doom in June went down in Las Vegas at the Cheyenne Saloon on June 4th. The lineup included Solitude Aeturnus, Wino, Hooded Menace, Iron Man, Stone Axe, Wofat, Leeches of Lore, White Witch Canyon, Meth Leppard, Hallowed Engine, Psilocybin, ...Of The Horizon, Crowned By Fire, Dead Neon, and Swamp Donkey.

Wino: ...Premonition, this band I've been working with for... Well, I've known the one guy for 20 years and we never did anything, finally decided to make a record. And they liked the demos, so they said they'd put it out. We did a single, and we're right in the process right now of mixing a full-length.

Are Shrinebuilder going to do another record this year?

Wino: Yeah, we are. We're starting to get the songs ready. The songs are written. That's one good thing that came out of that volcano, actually. We couldn't get over to Europe, and it's the only time we all had together, so we all went to L.A., to the rehearsal room, and basically fleshed out the record. We played one part of it on this last tour we did, but yeah. It's gonna be cool. It's gonna be heavy as hell.

Actually, it's fucking really fucking heavy. Kelly's writing some amazing stuff, and we're all collaborating. He's a great guitar player. He won't tell you that he is, but he's a great guitar player. He may not be Yngwie Malmsteen but he knows the power of a song and delivery for sure.

Scott Kelly, Wino (and Scott Kelly with Wino) were the main attractions at Saturday's Mercury Lounge show (2/12), as the Neurosis/Saint Vitus frontmen each played respective sets before collaborating on stage together. The pair of underground legends were joined by NYC folk faves Man's Gin (who covered Cobalt's "Dry Body"!), and Hunter Hunt-Hendrix of Liturgy who started the show.

Two greats of the heavy underground kicked off their unplugged tour together at The Viper Room in Los Angeles on Feb 5th (pictures from that show adorn this post). The trek is a short one. Wino and Scott Kelly (Neurosis) will play Baltimore's Sonar tonight (2/11) before closing up shop in NYC at Mercury Lounge on 2/12 with Man's Gin and Hunter of Liturgy. Tickets are still available or you can try your luck at winning a pair below.

If you're looking for something with a little bit more crunch, dont forget thatDoomriders will team up with Sweet Cobra and Unearthly Tranceto play Union Pool that same night. Though advanced tickets are no longer available, the show is not sold out. Doors are at 9PM and will cost you $12, or you can try to win one of two pairs below.

More pictures from the Viper Room in LA, which clearly show that the two greats collaborated on stage, and details on how to win tickets, below...

Before you really do the math, the idea is staggering: one member of Neurosis, one member of Saint Vitus, half of Shrinebuilder, one member of The Hidden Hand, and one member of Place of Skulls will all bless one stage. Of course the above lineup is really just projects associated with two men, Scott Kelly & Scott "Wino" Weinrich, and they will hit the road for a string of acoustic dates in the new year including Mercury Lounge in NYC on February 10th with Man's Gin. Tickets go on AMEX presale on Wednesday, 12/8 at noon, with regular sale hitting at noon on Friday.

Besides these acoustic-only dates, Wino has only one show on his calendar and that's with Scott Kelly at Roadburn 2011 as part of Shrinebulder. Scott Kelly has plenty of other dates though, as Neurosis will play shows on the West Coast around the New Year and are also scheduled to play Maryland Deathfest 2011. All tour dates are below.

Twenty three years. That's a long time, and even more pent-up doom frustration. Luckily, Saint Vitus were happy to oblige the crowds at Europa on 10/16 by playing an incredible set of doom classics to an electrified crowd who spent their energy moshing.... slowly.

Saviours had already taken the stage by the time I made it to the packed (sold out?) Europa (I missed both Orphan and Bassoon). The Oakland band gave a predictably awesome and thrashy performance filled with Maiden-style dual leads, touching on both their recent Into Abaddon and their upcoming Accelerated Living. As much I dig their records, their magnetic live show is where it's at. Like the Cali boy he is, vocalist/guitarist Austin Barber spoke between songs in his heaviest smoked-out Jeff Spicoli.

"Who's ready for Vitus! Yeee-ah, brah!"

I was, and so was the crowd (no offense brah).

As Saint Vitus was setting up, Dave Chandler was checking his gear by riffing on "Nervous Breakdown" by Black Flag and it reminded me of their connection to the legendary band and SST Records. Signing to SST on Henry Rollins' advice, Saint Vitus were easily the diametric opposite of the hardcore and punk mindset that came along with the label; while everyone was pushing tempos to the brink, Vitus were playing at speeds infitely slower. The band played to mostly punk crowds, pissing off the bulk of them and creating a legend in the process. THAT is punk.

Save for a few wrinkles and hair that had gone monochrome, I'd venture to say that Saint Vitus was every bit as good as I would have imagined them to be. Songs that suffered from thin and hollow production came alive and rattled with power at Europa. The band was tight and did justice to their legacy.

Though it was great to see Wino JUST on vocals (he's usually an axeslinger too), taking an active role with the crowd by shoving the mic in their face for singalongs, Dave Chandler was the most enigmatic of the bunch. It's hard to miss Chandler with his shock of grey curls held back by a bandana; his look would have fit in with Lynryd Skynrd perfectly... in 1974. "Born Too Late", indeed.

70's look aside, Chandler would snarl, yell, feedback, and mouth the words while riffing at the speed of a tortoise. In between songs, Chandler would riff odd songs like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Batman" before transitioning into classic Saint Vitus tracks. Odd? Yes. Kinda funny and genuinely fascinating? Definitely.

Lets hope that Vitus gets the show back on the road. I hope to seem them again sometime very soon.

Dale Crover of the Melvins (who plays drums in Shrinebuilder) recently played ATP and Nokia Theater with Down, and have a remix album out NOW entitled Chicken Switch. The LP features contributions from Merzbow, Lee Ronaldo, Matmos, and many others.

Full Shrinebuilder, Rwake and Liturgy dates, as well as a few live videos are below...

Meanwhile, Om (Al Cisneros's current project with Emil Amos of Grails/Holy Sons) have released the cover to their new LP, God Is Good, and are prepping to hit the road in late September, logging a pair of shows in NYC with Six Organs of Admittance and Lichens. Tickets are still available for their 10/11 show at Europa (here) and their 10/13 at Bowery (here)

Holy Sons are also prepping a new release, less than six months after the release of Drifter's Symphony! Look for the new LP, Criminal's Return, to surface via Important Records in middle October, and look for Holy Sons to hit the road in the fall (details forthcoming). Since Holy Sons is a solo project for Emil Amos, but he'll recruit members of Dolorean and Grails as members of the Holy Sons live band.

Hey doom fans! Are you sitting down? The legendary Saint Vitus has announced three east coast dates, including Europa in Brooklyn on Oct 16th. According to Blabbermouth, "these dates will mark frontman Scott "Wino" Weinrich's (THE OBSSESSED, WINO, SPIRIT CARAVAN, PLACE OF SKULLS, THE HIDDEN HAND, PROBOT) first appearances in these cities with SAINT VITUS since 1987!" Tickets for the NYC show are on sale (though there seems to be a problem with Ticketweb at the moment). Support is still TBA, though Type O Negative and the "Misfits" (who are playing BB King's on Halloween) are opening the October 17th show in Worcester (weird lineup). We'll keep you posted when more details surface.

Wino will also be in NYC with his solo band less than one week before the NYC date, supporting Clutch. Tickets are still available for both dates at Irving Plaza, 10/9 here and 10/10 here.

Clutch and Wino are opening for Shadows Fall (grody) on July 3rd in Atlantic City. That's bad news for those with a fear of New Jersey, crap metalcore (that's me), or crumbling casinos from the 80s. As tempting as it still is to go to that show just for the openers, there is now much less of a reason to. Clutch and Wino will team up for a US tour in September with Revolution Mother. That tour, which kicks off one month after Clutch's tour with Baroness and Lionize, includes NYC shows at Irving Plaza on Oct 9th and 10th. Ticket info is forthcoming.

Clutch is preparing to release their new album, Strange Cousins From The West on July 14th via their own Weathermaker imprint. Stream "50,000 Unstoppable Watts" from that LP at their myspace.

On September 8th, Drag City will proclaim that God is Good. The duo of Al Cisneros (who recently played his final show in Sleep) and Emil Amos (also of Grails/Holy Sons) will release their new four track LP of that name, their first LP together and the first Om LP since 2007's Pilgrimage. More details on the Steve Albini-produced album to come.

In addition to the new Om album, Al Cisneros has also helmed a new compilation for Arthur Magazine. Entitled Transmissions from Sinai and featuring art from the legendary Arik Roper, the disc contains contributions from some of the usual Cisneros suspects (Current 93, Scott Kelly, Holy Sons, Grails, Wino) as well as previously unreleased tracks from J. Mascis, Six Organs of Admittance, Lichens, and Sir Richard Bishop. The full tracklisting is below. For more information and to order that disc, head to Arthur.

A few contributors to Transmissions From Sinai will be in NYC in the VERY near future! Lichens has a show at Cake Shop on June 15th with New Zealand's Bachelorette and Pikelet.

Current 93 recently dropped Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain, as well as Monohallucinatory Mountain, the mono version of said record. Pick that up at David Michael Tibet's site. Spanning eight tracks over it's 53+ minutes, the LP features contributions from James Blackshaw, William Breeze (ex-Coil), Ossian Breeze (Coil), Rickie Lee Jones, Matt Sweeney, Andrew WK, Sasha Grey, and many many others.

We continue with JJ's report from the Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Holland. If you missed it, check out Day One, Day Two, and Day Three. The fourth and final day was Sunday, April 26, 2009, and that's what we have here...

The vibrating of an incoming call on my cell phone woke me up at 06:30 this morning. It was an old friend of mine -- probably the oldest, come to think of it -- whom I've known since third grade or so. He's a veteran now and got out of the Marines this past New Year's Eve, having done a combat tour in Iraq that provided him with nightmares and memories I can't even imagine and don't want to try and physical ailments which the military is now trying to screw him out of his health benefits to cover.

He was crying into the phone because one of his fellow Marines, with whom he was apparently quite close, died yesterday from complications resulting from terminal cancer. As I understand it, the complication in that circumstance is that you have cancer. It took two strokes to kill him, and aside from his wife and parents, he hadn't told anyone he was sick. My friend, who's already had far too much of the reality of human nature shoved into his eyeballs, was blindsided, and he'd spent that entire day making phone calls to say that another one of his buddies was dead.

I'll stop short of falling into some kind of "death as impetus for reflection on one's life" thing, but I think about that experience and I think about the last four days I've had, which as far as music goes have been some of the best of my life, and all I can chalk it up to at this point is privilege. I'm not rich, I can't afford this trip and knew I couldn't when I decided to undertake it after it was announced that Saint Vitus, whose logo t-shirt I'm now wearing, was playing. But I am a white American from an upper middle class background, and apparently that's enough to do whatever you want to in life. Like write about music for a living, or take the time out of the day to reflect on one's own cultural privilege -- or, more likely, not.

It's really easy to tell as you walk around Tilburg who is here for Roadburn and who isn't. Even when I first got here from Amsterdam on the train, the front of the station looked like an Eyehategod show could have broken out at any minute, all the bearded longhairs and black t-shirts, including my own, standing around looking for a bus or a cab. Like some kind of convention for the International Society Of Social Awkwardness. But oh, we do have a good time.

The thing about the "doom scene," as much as there is one, is that it's really more of a community. Maybe it's because the majority of its patrons are a little older, a little more stoned, a little more concerned with paying their rent, but there are way fewer scene rules than, say, in black metal, where the contest to be more kvlt than thou goes on ceaselessly. Certainly there's a uniform -- see "beards and t-shirts," above -- but there are some normal looking dudes running around here and no one really gives a crap one way or the other what they look like. I'd say it's refreshing, but it's been this way for as long as I've been into doom, so it's nothing new.

This is easily the best festival I've ever seen. The fact that I'm here still astonishes me. Yesterday, as I watched Angel Witch demolish bands half their age (though Saviours would answer back heartily later on), I couldn't help but look around me and be amazed at the gathering of riff worshippers. The Atomic Bitchwax, for example, played to a Green Room so packed that people were lined up into the hallway watching them through the open doors. I've seen the Bitchwax plenty of times in our shared home state of New Jersey, and most of those shows have been relatively empty. Here you can barely go from one part of the venue to the next without doing a bump 'n grind on some poor schlub. It's something to get used to, but I made a conscious decision to take a different approach to day two than I had to day one.

Neurot Recordings have confirmed that Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till are working on new Neurosis material, the follow-up to 2007's mammoth Given To The Rising! No word on when that material will surface, but with a little luck, maybe we'll see it in Neurot's 10th anniversary year (2009).

The band will be in the studio with Toshi [Kasai, Big Business] from January 9th through January 11th. Shrinebuilder's debut full-length, currently self-titled, is set for a summer 2009 release on Neurot Recordings.

Scott Kelly has announced that he will report live from the studio via [his blog] beginning no later than Saturday, January 10th. Look for guest blogs by other members of Shrinebuilder as well as possible in-studio photos from the band.

Wino added:

Yesterday we visited the gear catacomb where we exhumed some vintage gear for the recording including: Two seventies silver{gray} label Sunn model T's (which I immediately set upon replacing the existing preamp tubes with secret ones), a vintage Matamp, an Orange OD IOO, Roland space echo, various cabinets etc.

Ask any doom metal fan about the true pioneers of the genre and two bands will be mentioned: Black Sabbath and Pentagram. One of those bands is to take the stage on March 6, 2009 for a rare show at Webster Hall. It's the legendary Pentagram and tickets go on sale Friday at noon!

Pentagram... was quite prolific in the underground scene of the 1970s, producing many demos and rehearsal tapes, but did not release a full-length album until reforming in the early 1980s with an almost completely new lineup. Throughout the band's history the only constant member has been vocalist Bobby Liebling. The revolving lineup of Pentagram has featured many well respected musicians in the local doom metal scene... -[Wikipedia]

That "local" doom scene is in Maryland, which spawned MANY great doom-y bands including Clutch, Monster Magnet, Wino and his projects The Obsessed and Place Of Skulls (with a member of Pentagram), Earthride, and many many others.

Cult rock legend Bobby Liebling has been churning out genre defining and highly admired hard rock / doom metal for over 36 yrs. Drug addiction, band break ups, bad record deals, jail terms, chronic illness, Satanic blood sacrifices and various acts of self destruction haven't haulted him as he continues to claw his way to the top. This film in progress will highlight the triumphs and downfalls of the life of an underground icon. Experience his daily struggle as he attempts to not only succeed but to survive.